Copenhagen

May 12, 2012, 9:55pm, First Hotel Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

Our time in Copenhagen has been short but productive.  Jake, Usman, Justin, and I flew in early yesterday morning, after an 8 hour flight in which we finished a bottle of Jameson from Duty-Free.  We arrived at our hotel around 8:30am and decided we needed to continue our binge, at least until our room was ready.  We somehow obtained a free bottle of wine for signing up for the hotel’s email list, and relaxed in the lounge. 

Our room is pretty awesome, a corner roon with floor to ceiling windows and a couple flat screen tvs.  The down side is that the bathroom is ALSO floor to ceiling glass with limited frost, which means that showering and pooping have become a public affair.  After we cleaned up we decided to hit the town.  We spent a good 30 minutes walking in circles, trying to find the proper bus stop.  

We were finally successful, and headed into town. We stopped near Tivoli Park and decided to walk the rest of the way to Justin’s hostel, who wasn’t staying with us.  We got to see a bit of the city and Usman and Jake enjoyed a brief conversation with some Finnish girls looking for a lighter. 

We made it to Dan Hostel, which was a massive building (maybe 20 floors) with a bar/lounge in the lobby. Very busy, lots of people.  Jake, Usman and I sat down and had some beers as we waited for Justin to get checked in and settled.  As we waited, we had an old Danish ship captain come sit down and start talking to us.  His name was Robin, and he worked primarily out of Tanzania.  While he seemed quite nice (buying beers etc.) it was clear that he was looking for some companionship for dinner.  We decided this would be harmless, which retrospectively was a bad decision. 

We walked around with Robin until we found a nice steak restaurant, which we were all craving.  We sat down and realized how expensive the place was, which limited our choices. Regardless, we placed our order and got some wine.  At this point we started to realize that Robin was getting a little drunk, which initially was pretty hilarious as he kept trying to touch Jake’s leg “accidentally”. 

After we got the second bottle of wine it was abundantly clear that Robin was hammered.  He started spilling, taking food from other peoples’ plates, and other shenanigans that were becoming annoying.  After the second bottle was gone, Robin promptly got up, put on his jacked, and said he would see us later; clearly trying to duck out on the bill.  We stopped him and reminded him that he hadn’t paid, which resulted in a half hour ordeal involving the waiter, and an attempt to tell the waiter to put his meal on Jake’s credit card.

After finally getting him to pay, we parted ways and headed to another bar.  We had a quick drink at an Irish Pub before heading to Rosie McGee’s, a popular bar downtown.  We spent a few hours here before heading out in search of greener pastures.  We found an upscale bar/lounge and went inside to get some shots.  At this bar we met Simon, a Danish kid in his 20’s who knew the area well and became our tour guide.  After asking Jake and Usman their choice in women (High class or Detroit?) we decided to head to the “Detroit” bar called Heidi’s Bierbar.  On the way, Simon stopped into a 7-11 and came out with a bottle filled with dark colored liquid called “Fish”.  This obviously made us a little nervous, which was well founded. The bottle tasted like Jagermeister mixed with Goldschlagger and was incredibly vile.  

This put a few of us over the edge from drunk to stumbling drunk.  Nonetheless, we arrived at the bar at which time Usman tripped over the rope barrier into the security guard.  Needless to say it was difficult to convince the bouncer that we were ok to go in.  After we were inside, Simon was trying his hardest to introduce Jake and Usman to women who could not understand a word either one of them were saying due to the level of intoxication.  The gents decided it was time to go at which point we went outside and found a cab.  The girls getting out of the cab gave us a half bag of chips, which raised our spirits significantly.  As I was trying to get us home, I hear Jake yell from the back seat “Are we going to (expletive) Virginia?” at which point I reminded him we were in Copenhagen. 

We returned home and went to bed, except for Usman who spent an hour getting a pizza delivered. He did not make any friends at the concierge desk. While Usman was down stairs, Jake was passed out on the couch and I was checking facebook with our stereo blasting.  All of the sudden two Scandinavian guys walk in the door looking very scared and confused.  I asked them what they wanted and they asked if we minded turning the music down. I obliged and went to bed.

We woke up the next morning in a haze, got dressed and took off the the Carlsberg brewery.  I had eaten some bad leftover pizza and was feeling pretty awful, which lead to me departing after our tour to come home and lay down.  The gents returned a few hours later and watched TV/napped, watching Danish “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “The Mummy 2”.  We’re now freshening up and trying to find a bar that will play the NHL Playoffs.